So here I am in Vegas, and we’re having a great time – Sin City never fails to live up to expectations. And Wynn Las Vegas has a great business center for blog posting!

But today, let’s talk about music and this iconic and fabulous tune. We all know “The King” has the de facto primo version, and in the past I’ve linked to really good remakes by the likes of ZZ Top and Bruce Springsteen, but I have to say this version by Shawn Colvin beats them all.

I’ve haven’t posted about Shawn Colvin before, but she’s always been a Great White Shank favorite. Somehow she, like Mary Chapin Carpenter and Emmylou Harris have always seemed to fly underneath my radar, but I love their music as much as anyone else’s. Colvin in particular brings a really unique, kinda soft and gritty, world-weary kind of voice that does this song proud, doesn’t she? Whereas the others play up the fabulous fun and exciting nightlife of Vegas, Colvin’s soulful, moody arrangement effectively communicates the flip side – the darkness and emptiness of Vegas that’s always there lurking beneath those bright lights and that big city. One listen to the song’s haunting fadeout suggests everything ain’t quite as it might seem. She does such a great job on this tune, but then again, everything she does is great. I’ve got more to say about her and others in a future post.

And you thought The Great White Shank was only about surf, exotica, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Phil Spector, and The Sandals. You might be surprised at some of The Great White Shank’s not-so-publicized music faves. Stay tuned.